1992 – Enhancing User Experience in Digital Marketing with COLAB’s Morgan Witham

0:05Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, influencers, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt-in required where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments.

0:51Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you.

1:05With us right now, it's Morgan Witham. Morgan, you are the CEO of CoLab. You're found on the web at teamcollab.com. Looking forward to this conversation. Morgan, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me, Josh. Well, give us an overview of what CoLab does. Sure. So CoLab is a digital agency that is focused on solving problems using the web. So we are a team of strategists, UX, UI designers, developers, software engineers, really focused on solving specific problems using the web, whether that's user experience related, design related, features and functionality, really unique features and functionality, certainly entire redesigns and rebuilds.

1:50But websites and web applications is what we use to really solve some pretty big business problems. Yeah, what would be some examples of companies? I see you've got a pretty impressive roster of clients and case studies here. Do you mind maybe sharing some of the folks that you've worked with and some of the outcomes you've helped create? Absolutely. So we've got a pretty big presence in the financial services sector, really a lot of heavily regulated industries. So financial services, health care services, energy and power are areas where we have a pretty big presence. We do work with some nonprofits and transportation and logistics as well, but some pretty large credit unions in terms of assets under management.

2:31So Idaho Central Credit Union, Virginia Credit Union. We also, in terms of energy and power, work with Dominion Energy. And on the health care side, have worked with large health care services companies like Chinmed and Evelyn. So really a presence in areas that are professional services businesses, but also areas where both the marketing team is responsible for significant growth. But there are often challenges that we're solving using the web kind of across the entire organization, whether it is figuring out how to help a company minimize call volume to the call center by really kind of creating a good experience on their website for the customer or member portal.

3:15or perhaps it's really increasing the ability to hire the right talent by integrating a website with the recruiting tool that the company uses it or really thinking through the prospective employee experience and certainly the pretty typical marketing metrics that we're looking for. So one of the credit unions we work for by really focusing on the user experience of users coming and submitting forms for a new loan, just increasing that loan submittal percentage through redesigning that page up to their revenue by$3 million a month. So some pretty significant impact to businesses as they think about growing both in revenue, headcount, and kind of capabilities.

3:59Yeah. And so tell me maybe just a little bit about the history of CoLab. Like, you know, what was the kind of the need in the marketplace that you saw? And maybe that likely kind of leads into your mission purpose values. Yeah. So the company was founded in 2008 by Eddie O 'Leary, and it was really at the time founded on a pretty simple premise, which was that when you're working on the web, collaborating heavily between design and development at the same time leads to better outcomes. Now that's a little bit of table stakes for any good digital agency. This concept of designing kind of in the absence of thinking about the technical implications just really doesn't lead to success.

4:41So it was really founded on that sense of collaboration, hence the name CoLab. And for the first several years, it was a pretty small organization. And I joined about six years ago to really help kind of through this growth period. So how do we start elevating our internal processes? How do we really refine our position and how we go to market and really help lead the organization to to that next level? And since then, we have really kind of evolved the type of work we do, really been able to refine that value proposition. We've certainly expanded from a mostly local to a national presence with really kind of honing in on some of the key sectors where we excel and where we built up some pretty significant institutional knowledge.

5:25one of the things that we kind of realized along the way was, you know, what started is primarily project based work. So working on, you know, redoing the website, launching it and then kind of saying goodbye to that partner and not working with them again. We kept finding these pretty significant opportunities to do more with the knowledge that we had built up in the strategy phase. So, for example, when we were working with ChinMed, and this was quite a while ago now, our work started really actually on kind of a small technical issue that they needed solving, which we were able to jump in and do pretty easily.

5:59And then we were able to redesign their family of sites because they have several brands underneath the ChinMed umbrella. And then we started spotting all these other opportunities. So we heard from the sales team, like we've got this data that is, there's so much data in this Excel sheet that we can't even open it without it crashing our computer. So we were able to build a web-based database where they could pull that data. They could use different criteria to refine and really hone in and then using kind of heat maps to hone in on where can they go sell. We were able to really significantly improve how the leadership team communicated and connected with their team.

6:36It's a family-owned business, and they started growing rapidly at the time that we were working with them. And what had started as kind of individual one-to-one communication through calls, in person, they were now, they had employees across the country. They were, I think the year we were working with them, hiring hundreds of new employees. And the leadership team was really concerned that they were going to lose some of that kind of human touch that they had with their team. So we built this text-enabled platform that really allowed them to, you know, are we going to send a text to the entire company, to nurses in one region, physicians in one region, administrators in this particular area, and allow them to really have kind of a unique hands -on approach outside of just email.

7:18So those are some of the examples of kind of what we have learned and what's really kind of curated how we think about our work now, which is maybe what started as we're just going to do it. We're going to do a redesign and a rebuild. We're going to do this project to how do we develop a partnership that enables us to solve problems for this organization on an ongoing basis, using elements of the web and potentially expanding beyond just the marketing team, which frequently is where our work starts. And also, how do we iterate on that? So how do we use data from what we're learning on our site to iterate on it over and over again?

7:52So it was really kind of finding this personal kind of really vision-oriented work that we were doing with our clients that led to how we think about selling our services now. Yeah. And Morgan, to our friend that's listening right now, I'm hoping maybe you could just share some current trends that you're seeing, particularly in and around user experience, that are pretty critical. So like if we're looking at our own, you know, touch points that we have with our audiences and potential customers and existing customers, maybe, you know, what are some filters that we could potentially look at so that we could improve based on current best practices?

8:34Yeah. Well, one of the trends that we're seeing is a much bigger emphasis on this kind of the entire digital ecosystem is what I'll call it. So instead of thinking about it as each individual instance where you're connecting with a customer or a potential customer, thinking about it more broadly from beginning to end. And so thinking about it for really maybe one client experience through multi-modality. So how are they interacting with, you know, for some of our larger clients with your app, with the native app? How does that compare to the experience they have when they are on your website? For some of our nonprofit clients locally to Richmond, Virginia, such as Richmond Symphony or the Richmond Forum, which is a really now becoming international or national group that just attracts incredible speakers to come speak.

9:24How do you make sure that what they're seeing on the website mimics the same feel that they have when they're actually at an event? So we're really thinking about the customer experience very broadly from a multimodality. So what are all the ways that we can connect? And I think the companies that are doing it best are really thinking about and emphasizing the consistency across the board. So even for some large companies, when you go to their app or go to their website, there are these kind of small, almost subconscious inconsistencies that make you necessarily feel like it is a full, comprehensive experience.

9:56those are some of the problems that we try to chat that we try to kind of tackle. And I think those are some of the areas where we're seeing in the marketing space or in the digital space are really popular right now. Obviously, the other kind of big trend is how AI can be a huge part of this. So for marketers using AI on the content creation side is a big part of this. Using AI to kind of not in and of itself be the content, but to help facilitate and speed up that process. is becoming really popular. And I'd say the other trend we're seeing as it relates to the user experience is around personalization.

10:34So how can your website, how can your app really leverage knowing who the user is and serving up content or even creating a journey for them on your website that is specific to them, who they are and what their needs are. So those are some of the trends that we're seeing and that we're really finding opportunities to enhance both on the growth of new customers and clients for our clients, but equally as importantly on the retention side. So how do you make sure that you're offering up an experience that keeps them coming back, that keeps them feeling connected to the team or to what brought them to your company in the first place?

11:12So those are some of the areas where we're really trying to employ kind of new tactics and make iterations. And then I would say on that last point for iterations, and this is certainly how we work. And I think this is a trend we're seeing across marketing. And it's certainly, I think, always been a trend as it pertains to software development. But this concept of really viewing things iteratively. So I think kind of in a stale model of thinking about a website redesign, you would spend a lot of time and resources to do a giant redesign, rebuild, toss out your old website. And then you're going to do it all over again in five to seven years.

11:47And we're really trying to do away with that model. It's inefficient. It misses the ability to learn real time from data. So we're really trying to push more towards what I'll call an agile-ish or iterative way of thinking about the website. And our clients who are doing this really well, their internal teams are thinking about it from that perspective as well. So how do we keep iterating on this product landing page? Or how do we keep improving the design over time? And so thinking about it, again, with a long-term vision instead of a very short-term kind of immediate focus that then kind of gets forgotten.

12:23Yeah. I would imagine, too, Morgan, that you're probably seeing some uses or implementations of AI that maybe are misguided and maybe some that you think are quite brilliant. What are your observations on implementation of AI currently? We have found, and we have a lot of practice doing this both internally, but also kind of testing alongside some of our clients. Using it as a way to get started, we have found is consistently the best way to use it. And so it really enables, you know, and there are some really incredible tools out there now. Jasper AI is one of them that can really start taking on kind of a company's tone and voice in terms of content creation.

13:12but even then, I think it always requires kind of a human eye on the refinement piece of it. So I think if you're using it to speed up your creation, like, you know, go find kind of five of the top topics that are being talked about in these particular types of scenarios or rooms, or what is it that, you know, that COOs are most concerned about as it pertains to the siloing of information, like to generate a kind of a bulleted list of topics, or even to help flesh out an outline or get you started. But we've always found it's important to put a critical eye to infuse both your point of view. And your point of view, I think, has to do with your kind of proprietary knowledge and value that you create and deliver as a company.

13:58But also your point of view has to do with your tone, your brand, all of these elements that really put kind of your view on it. And so we find it best early in the creative process, if that's what you're using it for. and, you know, there are AI tools on the technical side that are incredibly helpful too. But again, QAing that I think is really important. Using it at the beginning parts of the process and then using your experts to do kind of the refinement and QA piece of it is how we've seen it used best. So speeding up, I think, is what we see the biggest. Because oftentimes we find that even the ideation piece of it, people come up with those ideas eventually themselves also, it just speeds that up and then helps you really kind of cull through what's interesting and what's not.

14:46And then refining the language at the end. Morgan, your website is teamcollab.com. To our friend that's listening, I know you've got some great resources here, but someone might be listening and say, you know, I'd love to have a conversation. Do you mind maybe kind of sharing what's next for someone who might have just kind of discovered you or they might be researching you? Yeah, yeah. How are they listening to our chat? First off, I would say visit our insights portion because we really, we're, you know, one of the kind of things that we focus on, the couple of things that kind of make CoLab unique.

15:20One is this concept of empowerment. We build in a way that really empowers the team that is using that website to use it all on their own in a very powerful way. So we're big on the concept of empowerment. And a big part of that is educating and training throughout the entire process that we go through. This is true for our clients that have kind of two people that aren't even truly dedicated marketing team working on the site, all the way to marketing teams of dozens that have internal development teams working on their website. It is true for all cases that we're just education is a big part of it.

15:54So we really pride ourselves on the thought leadership we put in there describing kind of how this iterative process could work, describing ways that you can incorporate AI. So I would say start there because it'll give you, you know, with kind of no pressure of anybody calling or talking, it'll give you a lot of resources that our hope is you can really take and use. Because a lot of it is just sharing the way we operate and what we know works from 15 years of doing this. Secondly, if somebody is interested in reaching out to us, whether that is to talk about a specific problem that they need help with as it pertains to the web, or if you're just curious of how good is my website right now?

16:37What is the user experience like? Where are my areas for opportunity? There's a place, even on the homepage, if you scroll down, you'll see a little pop-up that you can give us a heads up that you want an audit of your website. And we're happy to do that and send you our thoughts. and incorporate some things on there that our hope is always you can maybe take that and run with. If it's to the point where you really want to talk about a specific problem that you have or a way that CoLab can really elevate your digital ecosystem, then just reach out to us on the Contact Us page. We're always happy to have a conversation.

17:08It'll be with me and our chief product officer. And like I said, even if it's not a perfect fit for us necessarily, we really take a lot of time and care and attention to make sure we're educating folks along the way and sharing our point of view. Excellent. Morgan Witham, CEO of CoLab, your website, teamcollab.com. Morgan, thank you for joining us. Thank you, Josh.

17:39Thanks for listening to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

18:21I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm gonna share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

19:02I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Movement.